I tend to enjoy most movies that deal with superheroes, especially when the movies are based on well known characters from comic books. Superhero movies have become very popular in the last several years, so many new movies are being made. The summer of 2008 is looking very promising for superhero movies with several anticipated movies being released. I have been wanting to see Iron Man, the first of this year’s crop of superhero movies, for a long time.
I am only going to mention things from Iron Man that were shared during the trailers, so there aren't spoilers in this review. I will be a bit vague when I mention one or two things later in the movie because I don’t want to share too much and spoil things for people wanting to see the movie. People that would prefer not to know anything about the plot before seeing the movie should skip the next paragraph.
Tony Stark started inventing as a child and as an adult, he designed high tech weapons for the military that were manufactured by Stark Industries, the company his father had started. Tony travelled to Afghanistan to demonstrate his newest weapon to the troops there. Unfortunately things didn’t go well and Tony was injured and captured by a terrorist group. The leader of the group wanted Tony to build one of his weapons for them. Instead, Tony built an armored suit that allowed him to escape. Once back home, Tony decided that he didn’t want to build weapons anymore. Tony started designing a new suit with many improvements that he would use to protect people.
Iron Man was based on the character created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck, and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in issues of Tales of Suspense before he eventually got his own comic book in 1968. I haven’t read any of the comics and I still don’t know a lot about the comic book version of the character. My first introduction to the character was in Ultimate Avengers, the first animated movie made by Marvel. Invincible Iron Man, another animated movie, focused in on Tony and showed an origin story for Iron Man that was a bit different from what was done for this movie. After watching the two animated movies, I did look up some information about the character and it seems like several things were changed for the animated version of the character. Certain things were updated a bit to make the story fit in modern times, but it seemed like this movie stayed very close to the original material. I think the villain that turned up later in the movie was from the comic books. Something from the last few years of the comic book was also incorporated into the movie as well. I think that is opening up some interesting possibilities for a sequel.
The attack that caused Tony to be injured and captured occurred within the first few minutes of Iron Man. After that, the movie jumped back thirty-six hours to show things leading up to the attack. It didn’t take long for the movie to get back to the point when Tony was captured. That time helped to establish that while Tony was a genius, he enjoyed having fun and didn’t take anything too seriously. At one point, he was receiving an award and the presentation involved sharing some of his history like how he started inventing as a child. I thought that was a very good way to share the background information for people unfamiliar with the character in just a few minutes. It was necessary to take that time to properly set up Tony and everything he would be going through during the movie. The movie had a good origin story and provided Tony a villain to face without jamming too much into the movie like happened with Spider-Man 3. Certain things were predictable, but that tends to happen with this type of movie. The predictability of some things didn’t bother me but other viewers may feel differently.
Iron Man was full of action and adventure while still having scenes that weren’t action driven. There were all kinds of explosions and several fight sequences that I thought were done well. One that occurred late in the movie was very impressive and entertaining to watch. A lot of the action was provided when Tony put on his suit to deal with different situations. The several fight scenes did add violence. Tony’s injury was severe and a few things connected to that were a bit gross even though they weren’t graphic. The violence played a part in the movie being rated PG-13. I really don’t remember there being much swearing used by any of the characters. This really isn’t a movie for young children. Every so often, a bit of humor was added in that helped to lighten the mood a bit. I thought that moments of humor worked very well.
For superhero movies to be done right and well, special effects have to be used. I thought the effects in Iron Man were very well done. Even though I know effects were used for much of what Tony was able to do as Iron Man, the effects didn’t obviously jump out. They blended in seamlessly and made everything that was going on seem believable, which is what good effects should do. I loved all the things that Tony had in his workshop, like the different robots that were helping with certain tasks and the way some of his computer programs worked. It was all really cool and worked perfectly for the movie.
After learning more about the character and seeing Iron Man, I believe that he is a lot like Batman. Both men are extremely wealthy and they use their money and intelligence to develop items to use to fight crime or protect people. Neither of them had any special powers and they depended on their equipment to allow them to do what they did. I think that is a big part of the appeal of these characters. They are normal men - though they have buckets and buckets of money - who did extraordianry things to help others. Tony wasn’t driven by the death of his parents. His motivation was very different, so it isn’t like Iron Man is identical to Batman.
Tony made billions designing and selling high tech weapons to the military. He enjoyed his life and had a lot of fun, including hooking up with different weapon. It did seem like he truly believed that the weapons he made were protecting the country and the military in different war zones. He never thought about what could happen in those weapons ended up in the wrong hands until after he was captured. That all changed once he managed to escape and he became more focused on doing good. Tony was a complicated character which I felt made the movie more interesting. Robert Downy Jr. was wonderful in the part. He became Tony and made him believable even when he was running around in the armored suit.
None of the other characters were as developed as Tony. I thought that might happen since I expected the movie to be focused on Tony. The lack of development didn’t keep me from enjoying the movie even though it would have been nice if there had been more for some characters. I’m thinking that some characters will receive more attention if a sequel is made. Pepper Potts was Tony’s assistant. She handled all sorts of things for him and it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to manage very long without her. It wasn’t clear how long she had worked for him, but it seemed like a long time. They had a good friendship with a few hints of deeper feelings that they didn’t seem to want to act on. Gwyneth Paltrow did a good job with the part. Director Jon Favreau turned up in a few scenes as Tony’s driver.
Obadiah Stane had been with Stark Industries since Tony’s father had started the company. He had a lot of authority with the company. I didn’t recognize Jeff Bridges in the part since he looked so different with a shaved head. He did a good job with the part. Christine Everhart was a reporter who was critical of Tony but still jumped into bed with him. Leslie Bibb really didn’t have much to do since her character was only in a few short scenes. Jim Rhodes was a member of the military who worked in weapons development. That did cause him to work with Tony. It seemed like the men were friends, though Jim was annoyed by some things that Tony did. Terrence Howard did a very good job with the part.
Main Cast
Leslie Bibb - Christine Everhart Jeff Bridges - Obadiah Stane Robert Downy Jr. - Tony Stark/Iron Man Terrence Howard - Jim Rhodes Gwyneth Paltrow - Pepper Potts
Jon Favreau - Director
Iron Man is a wonderful superhero movie that was very entertaining. It had a good origin story, a decent amount of action, and an interesting main character. I think this is one of the better superhero movies and I would definitely like to see a sequel. Even though I also liked Spider-Man 3, I thought this movie was much better. Fans of superhero movies should give this one a chance.
Robert Downey Jr. stars as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the story of a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a ...More at HotMovieSale.com
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